


Over My Shoulder

by Lothiriel84



Series: Another Cup Of Coffee [7]
Category: MarsCorp (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Heavy Drinking, I Don't Even Know, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 10:52:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11034693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: Every day it's a losing battleJust to smile and hold my head up high





	Over My Shoulder

It wasn’t the first time David had stayed the night; Dave’s quarters might be tiny, and crammed with all sorts of stuff he’d somehow managed to scrape together over the years, but he had a faint suspicion that David wasn’t entirely comfortable with all the memories that lurked in wait as he walked through the deserted corridors at night. Their little co-workers-with-benefits deal had been going on for a few months now, and it worked perfectly fine for Dave; or at least, it used to, until he found himself staring at David as he got dressed in the morning, and wondering when exactly it had all started to feel so familiar – snug, even.

Well, it had to stop, he chided himself, even as he pressed a quick kiss to David’s lips. He was an Orange, and that meant he couldn’t afford getting soft, not if he wanted to achieve something in life; besides, they had both agreed on there being no strings attached right from the start, and he was going to stick to the terms of the contract. That was the essence of commerce after all – unless you could somehow get a better deal by tricking the customer, that was.

It was sort of ironic, that he would turn out to be the sentimental one; he had always feared that David, inexperienced as he was, might get too attached, and try to turn their little arrangement into something more. _You’re pathetic, Dave_ , he sneered at his reflection as he shaved in front of the tiny reflective panel that served as a mirror. _Time to pull yourself together._

They had already agreed on going out for drinks in the evening, the three of them, plus Hayley’s new girlfriend – Katie, or whatever. He supposed that was as good an occasion as any, patiently waited out the girls’ light-hearted teasing, and David’s awkward attempts at joking back; in the end it was just the two of them, and he bluntly offered to walk David to his quarters.

“Katie seems a really nice girl,” David remarked, somewhat casually. “I’m glad Hayley is finally dating someone,” he suddenly trailed off, but Dave could hear the unspoken ‘her age’ that hung in the air. Well, at least she would stop trying to hit on either of them, which was definitely a good thing.

“Do you want to, um, come in?” David hesitated after entering the key code. Dave shook his head, eventually made eye contact. “Listen, mate. We’ve had some good times, you and I. I think it’s time we move on, if you get what I mean.”

“Oh,” David uttered, though he didn’t sound particularly upset or anything. “Okay then. We can still be friends, right?”

“Yeah,” Dave nodded, vaguely surprised that David considered him a friend at all. “Sure thing. Why not?”

David smiled – a genuine smile, one that didn’t look like he was being kicked in the ribs. “Good night, Dave.”

He watched the door slid shut behind him, resisted the urge to bang his head against it.

  

* * *

 

“Oh, for Shareholders’ sake,” he heard a voice coming from somewhere above him, far too loud for comfort, threw an arm over his face to block out the light and the pain. He had a vague recollection of making the executive decision to have a couple more drinks before bed, couldn’t actually remember how or when he had ended up face down on the floor; still, the room wasn’t spinning anymore, and he decided to take that as a good sign.

“Here, take this,” the familiar voice instructed him, and he summoned whatever little coordination he still possessed to reach for the glass of water and handful of pills he was offered. Shareholders, but his head hurt.

“You know, you should consider yourself lucky that I found you before you choked on your own vomit,” Hayley quipped, her tone between fond and exasperated. Oh, right, so it was in fact Hayley – just what he’d always wanted, having a teenager witness one of his utterly pathetic crises. How delightful.

“Get lost, kid,” he muttered, defensively, too tired to even begin to care. Hayley didn’t budge though, forced him to scramble off the floor and onto the settee. “Your right hand, please.”

He complied out of exhaustion, finally started to realise just how much his palm was stinging. Great, he must have landed on broken glass, if the shards Hayley started pulling out of his skin were anything to go by.

“You and Katie have lots of fun, don’t you? Playing doctor, that sort of thing.”

“At least we don’t try and drink ourselves to a coma,” she retorted quickly, swiping his palm with something that smelt suspiciously like disinfectant. He was having a hard time deciding which one hurt more, his head or his hand, and he struggled to swallow down a fresh bout of nausea.

“If you’re all intent on mothering me, why don’t you go and make some coffee, like a good intern?” he joked half-heartedly, as she finally wrapped a piece of sterile gauze around his hand.

“You’re so lucky that I actually like you,” she threw at him over her shoulder, as she headed over to the knackered coffee machine, and retrieved two mugs that were only slightly cracked in places. “You know, I thought it would be funny to watch you mope over David, but it’s pretty sad, all things considered.”

“I’m not moping,” he spluttered, tried to push himself to an upright position in spite of his throbbing head. “And certainly not over David.”

“Yeah, right. If you say so,” she shrugged, waited for the ping that signalled the coffee was ready.

Dave practically inhaled his own, let his head drop back against the armrest. “David and I are both adults. We agreed this wasn’t working for us, and decided to end things by common accord. It’s as simple as that. No hard feelings.”

“So, that’s why for the past few weeks you’ve been looking like someone stole the secret recipe for Dave Cola, right?”

He stared at her as she calmly sipped her coffee. Damn, the girl was far too perceptive for her own good, and he wasn’t sure he currently appreciated that particular trait of hers.

“We had sex a few times. That was all it was ever about,” he pointed out at length, somewhat bitterly. “I’m a pathetic little Orange, he’s a Blue with a charming reputation as a criminal lunatic. Nothing much to work on, is there?”

Hayley put down her mug, looked him straight in the eye. “Katie’s citizen status is Red, and she’s an intern for the Medical Department. She pissed off her whole family when she told them we were dating. We still want to move in together as soon as we finish our internships.”

“Yeah, well done, you,” Dave replied, somewhat sarcastically. “I still expect you to pull your weight, regardless of your living arrangements.”

“My point is, you’re being an idiot. And David is not the frightened little boy who’s only just been released from prison anymore.”

Dave stared at his empty mug for a long moment, his thoughts stumbling upon one another in a quagmire of hangover and all the resentment against the system that had been accumulating over time. “Yes, well. I think I’m going to try and sleep on it, if you don’t mind.”

She smiled at him as if she found it only too easy to read between the lines, down to the grudging acknowledgment that she might even be right.

He settled back against the cushions, closed his eyes, and focussed on the comforting, empty blackness behind his eyelids.

 

* * *

 

 _What’s going on between you and David?_ That was what Hob had demanded to know in the early days of their not-quite relationship, and quite bluntly too.

 _Ooh, do you need me to talk you through the process_? He had retorted then, because he simply couldn’t pass up the chance to be a smart-arse. The truth was that her concern was pretty much unwarranted; he might be entirely too selfish in the eye of his fellow employees, but he would never attempt to actively hurt someone as vulnerable and naive as David.

What he was about to do now, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. He honestly believed that for all his flaws, he wasn’t as bad a person as everyone else seemed to make him out to be; the crux of the matter, however, was that two broken people as he and David seldom made for a good match, never mind some sort of relatively healthy relationship. They came from different backgrounds, and still belonged to separate worlds even in spite of David generally being treated as lowly as any Orange; they might all hang out together now, pretend that they were some sort of makeshift family, regardless of colour and their respective pasts, but that didn’t mean all that much in the grand scheme of things. They were all MarsCorp property, every single one of them, and they hardly got any saying in the ruling of their own lives, no matter what their personal feelings.

David greeted him with a fairly cheerful smile as he entered his improvised lab, waved a large round-bottom flask at him. “Hello, Dave. I think I’ve managed to create an entirely new formula, with corn syrup as the main ingredient. Jim tried it earlier, said it tasted pretty good to him.”

“Yeah, fantastic,” he replied, somewhat absent-mindedly. “Look, David, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Sure,” David nodded, placing the flask back onto its stand. “How about we grab something from the vendibots while we’re at it? I’m starving.”

Dave looked at him, really looked at him for the first time ever since he could remember. David didn’t look like the ghost of himself anymore, and while he would probably never be completely free from the burden of his past, he was starting to act more and more like a normal human being of late. It had never been about romance between the two of them, but he found himself wishing the man in front of him as happy a life as he deserved, or the closest to it he could hope to get.

“Actually, never mind. It’s not that important. Just – forget about it,” he shrugged it off, turning his gaze to the assorted bits and bobs that cluttered the table. “I’ll see myself out.”

He was about to press the button to open the door, when he felt David’s hand on his arm. “What is it, Dave?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head, calmly freed himself from David’s hold. “Just changed my mind, that’s all.”

David stepped between him and the door, effectively blocking his way out. “Hayley’s worried about you. She refused to tell me what’s it all about, but – I’m not stupid, you know.”

“I never thought you were,” he conceded, crossed his arms defensively. “It’s just – it’s pretty stupid, all right?”

“You said we would still be friends, remember? That’s what friends do – they talk, Dave. Or that’s what I’m told, at least.”

He couldn’t resist quirking an eyebrow at him. “And just how many friends have you had in your life, David?”

“Sigh. That’s irrelevant,” David countered, quietly. Dave recognised the look on his face, the one that meant he was thinking of Colin Denham, his former mentor and lover. That was what eventually forced his hand, and made him admit to the truth even in spite of himself.

“As I said, it’s nothing, just a really stupid idea. It’s not as if I’m in love with you or anything, and I guess we’re not even compatibles, most likely.”

“But we are,” David pointed out, in his usual helpful manner. “Compatibles, I mean. I checked ages ago – not that I was expecting anything out of it, I suppose you could say I was just curious.”

He huffed a laugh, shook his head in amused disbelief. “You truly are a ridiculous man, you know.”

David cut him off by placing a palm on his chest, and leaning down for a kiss.


End file.
